Five of the Worst Pieces of Exercise Equipment

There is an infinite amount of exercises one is able to use when going to an everyday gym. Some believe more variety is best. Some believe a person should do what is necessary to succeed. Regardless of which school of thought is right or wrong they both should agree on what exercise equipment is just used to waste time and take up space. I have compiled a list to allow you to eliminate useless training equipment and either train with variety or train with restricted necessity.

1. Smith Machine:


This has to be the worst piece of equipment in the gym. Many trainers will make the best of this machine and use it to do other exercises besides squats and lunges. That is creative and great. However, if you are using this silly machine to squat, lunge, deadlift, row, or press you are asking for serious joint trouble down the road.

2. Hip Ab/Adductor Machine:



A friend once gave this the nickname “good girl-bad girl” machine. This machine supposedly will “tone” your inner and outer thighs. The only problem is “toning” is simply lowering bodyfat while maintaining muscle AND there is no such thing as “spot reduction” (i.e. if you twist a lot you won’t get nice abs). The machine puts “unnatural” pressure on muscles that are used to stabilize and neutralize movement. You want to strengthen these muscles jump, sprint, squat and lunge.

3. Torso Twist Machine:

I rarely see this piece of crap in gyms anymore. This machine puts loads of unnecessary and unnatural pressure on the spine. Unless you want a nice herniated disc in your spine, don’t use it.

4. Swiss Ball Squats:

This exercise does the same horrible job as a Smith machine, minus the machine. It creates extra tension on the knees and hinders a person from doing an actual squat. Instead you learn how to fall backwards.

5. Shoulder Press Machine:


The shoulders are the most mobile and vulnerable joints in the human body. When motion is restricted as with this machine you are not saving your joints, you are just causing more chance of injury. Keep away from this silly machine.

I can go on, but I won’t. This stuff gets my blood pressure high. Also there are other pieces of equipment to watch out for, but they are too debatable to be debunked. From this list you should be able to set some good boundaries for your next workout.